Exclusive: Matt Damon recalls the risk that changed his and Ben Affleck’s lives
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s four-decade friendship has remained steadfast despite their personal and professional ups and downs. Both also risked losing Good Will Hunting rather than compromise their creative vision, a gamble that ultimately led to the Oscar success.
For more than four decades, actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have shared one of Hollywood’s most enduring friendships. From childhood friends and struggling actors to Oscar-winning colleagues, producers, husbands and fathers, the two have traversed every phase of life together. Exclusively spoke to India Today during the promotion of Christopher Nolan odyssey In India, Damon reflected on what that bond means to him and the biggest career gamble he and Affleck have ever taken.
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When asked what a stable personality like Affleck has taught him about finding ‘home’ in an unpredictable industry like Hollywood, Damon said that their friendship has been a support through all the ups and downs. He said, “Well, it’s everything. We’ve been really close friends since we were young, and so we’ve experienced a lot of life together at different stages from adolescence to adulthood and the struggling years.”
the actor added that writing good will Hunting Living together became a turning point in both of their lives, but their friendship has remained unchanged despite the fame that followed.
Damon said, “We obviously wrote the script together that changed both of our lives and then experienced that change together and then became husbands and fathers. There’s nothing better than having someone who can walk with you through life and be there for you when things are good, but he’ll be there when things are hard. And he always has been.”
Damon also looks back at the career decision that seemed like the riskiest at the time but ultimately defined the actor he is today. Not surprisingly, it also kept moving around good will Hunting. Recalling the early days of the film, Damon revealed that he and Affleck almost lost the project because he refused to compromise his creative vision.
“The riskiest decision we made was that there was a studio that was willing to make Good Will Hunting with a director who, I’m sure, would have done a good job, but was not the exact director we were looking for,” he said, adding that rather than compromise, the two decided to part ways, even if it meant losing the film entirely.
“So Ben Affleck and I took the risk of losing the movie. We said we’re going to set it somewhere else, and they said if you can’t, we’ll take the movie back and you guys are out. We could have gone for a version that might not have been the best, but it was a sure thing. We decided to roll the dice and see if we could set it somewhere else,” he recalled.
The gamble paid off. good will Hunting (1997), directed by Gus Van Sant, became a cultural phenomenon, earning Damon and Affleck the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and launching them into Hollywood’s top league.
Damon is currently starring in Christopher Nolan’s film odysseyWith Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o and Charlize Theron. The film is already creating new records for the filmmaker and his team.